1) Field of the Invention
The invention herein relates to a golf practice device that improves upon the disadvantages of conventional golf practice devices that only provide for simple golf club swinging practice and are incapable of effective correction adjustments. With the structure of the invention herein, while the user is engaged in golf club swinging practice, in addition to providing for swinging practice, the invention herein offers increased practical performance by indicating to the user whether the golf club has hit the golf ball squarely or not and, furthermore, allows for the appropriate corrections, which is among the major innovations of the present invention.
2) Description of the Prior Art
More and more people are playing the sport of golf. The greatest pleasure of golf is using the golf club to swing at and accurately hitting a ball that is only about four centimeters in diameter and have it land at the location targetted. However, even if the golfer swing is only slightly off the mark, that slight divergence usually results in great inaccuracy. As such, golfers must practice their swing before actually playing on the golf course so they can achieve the desired proficiency.
Therefore, golf ball swinging practice structures are available on the market just for such purposes and as indicated in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, one such product is comprised of a rotary assembly 3 mounted on a support 2, with a golf ball assembly 3 pivot mounted to the rotary assembly 3; furthermore, the said rotary assembly 3 consists of an upper and lower shell 31 and 32, each having a semicircular recess along the inner walls and two ribs 311 and 321, respectively, and positioned in between the two pairs of ribs is a bearing 33, and the bearing 33 is mounted on the relatively small diameter tip 21 of the support 2 and secured in place by a lock pin 331; the inner sides of the upper and lower shell 31 and 32 form a containment cavity 34, and there is an insertion slot 322 in the containment cavity 34 of the lower shell 32; the golf ball assembly 4 consists of a pliable plastic rod 41, a retainer 42, and a golf ball 43, of which a sphere 411 is formed on the upper end of the pliable plastic rod 41 which enables a restraining insertion into the containment cavity 34 of the rotary assembly; following the assembly of the said structure, when utilized to practice the golf swing, the golf club (not shown in the drawings) is aligned with the golf ball 43 at the bottom end of the golf ball assembly 4 and after the golf ball 43 is hit, the impacted golf ball 43 causes the sphere 411 at the top end of the pliant plastic rod 41 to become restrained in the containment cavity 34 of the rotary assembly 3 which then causes the rotary assembly 3 to spin around the support 2 via the bearing 33 mounted on the relatively small diameter tip 21 of the support 2 until the golf ball 43 at the bottom end of the golf ball assembly 4 returns to its original hanging position, at which time another swing can be practiced.
Each time the user hits the golf ball 43 at the bottom end of the golf ball assembly 4, the sphere 411 at the top end the pliant plastic rod 41 becomes restrained in the containment cavity 43 of the rotary assembly 3 and the rotary assembly 3 spins around the relatively small diameter tip 21 of the support in the same direction before coming to rest in its original hanging position so the user can practice swinging again; in other words, the conventional structure only provides an extremely basic mode of practice to the user, wherein each time the golf ball 43 at the bottom end of the golf ball assembly 4 is struck, the entire rotary assembly simply rotates around the relatively small diameter tip 21 of the support 21, and if the golf club failed to hit golf ball 43 at the bottom end of the golf ball assembly 4, the golf ball 43 would remain unmoved and after the swing and knowing whether the golf club hit the center of gravity of the golf ball 43 at the bottom end of the golf ball assembly 4 would not be possible, which illustrates that this kind of golf practice device is only capable of providing the user a single-faceted and simple means of golf ball 43 hitting practice, without effectively allowing the user to know whether the golf ball 43 was hit squarely at its center of gravity. As a result, when the user of such a product actually plays on the golf course, it is easier to hit the relatively small golf ball, but the directional accuracy to targetted location may still be wanting because the conventional structure still requires improvement.
Therefore, the inventor of the invention herein, fully cognizant of the existent shortcomings of conventional golf practice structures and relying on many years of experience in the field of sports equipment manufacturing and assembly, conducted research to develop an improved structure which culminated in the golf practice device of the invention herein, an innovative device that improves upon the shortcomings of the conventional structures and, therefore, is submitted in application for the granting of the commensurate patent rights.